GCAP Discusses Suicide Prevention

After the recent tragic suicide of a Glastonbury High School student, and two other GHS grads, the Glastonbury Community Action Partnership decided to discuss efforts to prevent further suicides, at its April meeting.

The GCAP is working on ways to get more information out about how to spot warning signs and prevent future suicides.

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"We've now got three children from our town who have taken their own lives in recent history," said Kathryn Harris, president of GCAP. "We've got to do something to address these kids' insecurities."

At the GCAP meeting on April 5, Harris said that she had done some legwork herself, and found two organizations – The Trevor Project, which provides education and resources for suicide prevention specifically within the LGBTQ community, and the Jordan Porco Foundation – based in Hartford and founded in 2011 by Ernie and Marisa Porco, after they lost their son, Jordan, to suicide when he was a freshman in college.

"The Jordan Porco foundation has two specific programs. One is called 9 out of 10, which is that nine out of 10 colleges students actually think about suicide," Harris said, adding that the Trevor Project also provided facts, including that suicide is the second most common cause of death among people aged 10-24, and that the rate of suicide attempts is four times greater for LGBT youth, and twice as much for questioning youth.

Patti Cole, who runs the Rainbow Café for LGBTQ teens at St. Luke's Church, said that while Glastonbury High School has a strong Gay-Straight Alliance, there are other measures that can help keep teens from falling through the cracks.

UConn holds a True Colors event, for LGBT teens, each year during spring break week, and it is the largest gathering of its sort in the country. Unfortunately, Cole said, Glastonbury was unable to send a bus of students this year, as it usually does, because of other field trips.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't have a bus coming from this high school every year," Cole said, "and it should be open and encouraged for the allies, because that allows kids who are questioning to go as allies and get the warmth and support. It really is an amazing event."

Melissa Luginbuhl, executive director of the East of the River Action for Substance Abuse Elimination, which provides some substance abuse prevention funding to Glastonbury – said that ERASE offers a QPR (Question, Persuade and Refer) suicide prevention training program, free of charge, and offered it to GCAP, Glastonbury Youth and Family Services, or any other organization who would like it. Subsequently, GYFS will be offering the training.

Also, GYFS staff and GHS staff will be receiving training from Dr. Ilene Gruenberg, a local psychologist, which was planned before the recent suicide.

Eric Viara, the town's substance abuse prevention coordinator, said that programs like QPR have been used in the past, and that the training will be offered to adults and youth in the community.

"That's a useful thing to utilize in the schools," he said. "GCAP is working on making the QPR more widely used."

But when a suicide happens in a community, there can also be some misinformation, as people look for simpler, rational explanations.

"When we look at a suicide in town, we also have to be careful of what we read in the media," said Durlene Mikkelson, Glastonbury's director of Human Services, who added that some of the rumors in Glastonbury's recent case are not necessarily true. "Their family might say it's not accurate. It can be complex and layered."

"It's never going to make sense," Cole said, adding that suicide rarely follows a rational pattern of thought, and the reasons why are often not fully known.

Cole said she had spoken to kids at the Café, about what the climate at GHS is like for them.

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"They have not had big complaints," she said, "but it only takes one or two people, who do it quietly when no one else is looking, to make someone else's life miserable."

For more information, contact Viara at 860-652-7531 or visit Glastonbury Community Action Partnership on Facebook. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-TALK.